


Exhausted

by arcadian_hiraeth



Series: Miraculous Stories [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Is Sunshine, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Finds Out First, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, F/M, Identity Reveal, Lila Rossi Lies, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, POV Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:01:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22026010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcadian_hiraeth/pseuds/arcadian_hiraeth
Summary: Marinette Dupain-Cheng is tired. And it doesn't go unnoticed by Adrien Agreste.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Miraculous Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1588762
Comments: 12
Kudos: 830
Collections: Finished, Finished111





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette faints and Adrien is there help her. In her sleep-induced haze, she says something that tips Adrien in the direction of finding out her alter ego.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng is _tired._ Tired in a bone-deep way sleeping won't fix. Hawkmoth has been overloading them with Akumas, and despite them being easy to deal with, the exhaustion of having to transform more than once a day isn't. And then there's the commissions she's been doing to save up money and start her business. Along with the work from school, and having to deal with Lila and her class while _in_ school. Not to mention having to help out in her family's bakery.

Her eyes are half-closed in class, and she can barely keep her head up. Ms Bustier's words go in one ear and out the other, and her notes are scribbled in a messy writing she would hardly be able to read later. She can try and get some sleep later, at lunch. If there wasn't an Akuma, that is. She can't help but grimace at the thought, and she's suddenly grateful she's in the back. Had she been in her old seat, Ms Bustier would have called her out.

Another hour and a half passes before the bell for lunch rings, and it takes her the longest to get out of her seat. She goes outside, instead of the cafeteria, and sits at a bench she's unofficially deemed as hers. If she goes in the cafeteria now, all she'll see is every classmate huddled around Lila. The thought makes her stomach twist with nausea and dislike. Not hate, because there's only one person Marinette absolutely hates.

She closes her eyes, willing the sudden sick feeling to go away. She needs to eat first, she knows she does, but she's so tired. Tired in a bone-deep way sleeping won't fix, but she needs the little peace of dreamless sleep, even if it's only an hour.

She can feel herself falling, but she's already knocked out by the time she's collapsed on the bench.

* * *

Adrien Agreste is, by all accounts, tired. Chat Noir takes up enough time, but he has language lessons and modelling gigs, not to mention school. But he can see his Lady is tired, too. The bags aren't visible, hidden behind her mask as they are, but her moves are sluggish, as if her body is too heavy to carry.

And then there's Marinette. He doesn't see her often, as she's in the back and looking back at her while he's in the front is a sure-fire way for Ms Bustier to draw attention to him. But he sees her at lunch and after school. The bags under her eyes are thinly concealed with makeup, but she's got the same lethargic way of moving as Ladybug.

So, Adrien Agreste decides that today is the day he confronts both of them about it. Marinette first, because he only sees Ladybug this early in the day if there's an Akuma.

When lunch rolls around, he tries to stay back and talk to her, but Lila is already dragging him out of the class. Later, he decides. He'll talk to her later. It's only in the cafeteria when he realizes he left his lunchbox in the classroom. There's the option of just leaving it there, or going back to his house for food, but walking to his house is more work than just going back and getting it. He's been missing too much sleep, and he doesn't feel like missing out on food, either.

He makes sure Lila knows what he's doing, so she can't follow him. He makes it an effort to point out she said she sprained her wrist yesterday, and it takes at least two weeks to heal. She can't refute that, so he goes alone.

When he's actually in the classroom, he catches something fall outside in the corner of his eye. Or, rather some _one._ The person is wearing a black jacket and pink jeans, their blue-black hair pulled into low pigtails. Oh, crap, that's Marinette!

He watches for a moment, wishing she gets back up. But she doesn't, and he races to her, lunchbox left behind. Vaguely, he hears Plagg complain about not getting the camembert that they both know is in there. 

When he finally does get to her, he thanks the gods, whoever they may be, that she's breathing. He contemplates waking her up, but he knows how tired she's been.

Carefully, very carefully, he lifts her up. Her eyes flutter, opening slightly as he does. She mumbles something, something along the lines of, " _Mon Minou,_ let me sleep."

He freezes, then, because there's only one person who calls him _Mon Minou._ And that person is someone always clad in red and black, bluebell eyes swimming with a protectiveness, even when she's as tired as he's seen her. Bluebell eyes that match the ones of the very girl he's holding.

Plagg must've seen something flash in his eyes, because he says, "Kid?"

His tone is partly confused, partly suspicious.

Adrien presses his lips thin, swallowing the truth on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he says, "We need to get her to the nurse."

* * *

Nurse Mercier just tells him what he already knows; Marinette passed out from exhaustion, and it's best if she's not woken up. She tries to call her parents, but they're too busy to pick her up. She can't have her stay here, though. Other students might come in, and there's only one bed. The only other option, in her mind, is to wake her and bring her back to class, despite having just said she's not supposed to wake up.

Adrien offers to get her back home, and Nurse Mercier is obviously relieved to hear that. She cares about her students, that much is obvious.

So he goes back to class, gathers her stuff, and asks Gorilla to come pick him up. The man doesn't ask any questions when he tells him to go to the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, and he's grateful for that. Tom and Sabine, to their credit, fuss over their daughter when he brings her in, but they can't for long. The title of Best Bakery definitely ups the workload, but it's a family business. The only staff they'd be hiring would be their daughter, but she's still in school and they both know she has more love for designing than baking.

Adrien has seen Marinette's room before, on the show where Jagged Stone tries to bake with her parents and when he's played games with her, but he can't help but feel like he's seeing it for the first time. This room (possibly) belongs to his Lady.

He sets her down on her bed, just as carefully as he picked her up, and he can hear Plagg make a comment about him treating her like a Princess. Adrien cant help but grin, and respond in a slightly hushed tone, "Well, Ladybug deserves nothing less."

There's a beat of silence before the Cat Kwami fully registers what he said. "What? Marinette can't be Ladybug, because-.. Because you saw her as Multimouse, remember?"

His words are frantic, obviously trying to come up with an excuse. But Adrien also remembers Multimouse having taken other Miraculous, and surely she had the Fox Miraculous, too. Which means either Multimouse or Ladybug had been a Mirage. He just grins wider at Plagg, explains his findings shortly, and goes back to setting her stuff down, too.

Plagg's refutals die down as he enters the bakery, where Tom and Sabine give him a pastry, on the house, for bringing their daughter home. He eats it happily on his way back to school, where he gets his lunchbox and everyone asks where he went.

"Marinette fainted. The nurse said she needed to sleep, so I brought her home." Not exactly the full story, but he wasn't going to mention the _Mon Minou_ or how her parents couldn't pick her up.

Lila gasps, eyes wide in concern and hand to her mouth in shock. But Adrien isn't an idiot. He can see the hint of a smile behind her hand. "Oh, are you sure she really fainted? A girl at my old school did that all the time to get out of class. She was a horrible person, always interrupting class."

Adrien frowns, the thought of that girl having narcolepsy passing his mind, but he instead settles on, "No, she really was passed out. Haven't you seen how tired she's been?"

Alya scofs, "Like being a bully is so tiring. And plus, how could you see her faint? You were outside of the cafeteria, and she was in here!"

The blond gives her an almost accusing look, "She hasn't been eating in the cafeteria for a few weeks. She eats outside."

Alya's brows furrow and confusion, and she looks over to where she, Marinette, he and Nino used to sit, before Lila transferred in. Nathaniel and Marc were sitting there, and based on the amount of food wrappers around them, they've been there since lunch started. "Oh..."

Adrien swallowed the words on his tongue, and continued eating.

He _really_ needs to talk to Ladybug later.

* * *

It was a tuesday, which meant they had split patrols. Chat Noir had decided to ask His Lady after patrol. It would be bad if she was distracted and couldn't fight properly. She could get hurt, and it would be all his fault.

He took a deep breath, trying to find out how exactly he was going to word the question. He had one, two if the first was was answered with a 'no', and he really didn't want to sound pushy or rude.

Before he knew it, patrol was over. They had four Akumas during those two hours, none of them being particularly hard to beat, but Plagg was getting tired, and so was he. It was probably about 1 AM, and he would get roughly four hours of sleep if he went to bed as soon as he got home. But first, "Ladybug?"

Said heroine turned around, bluebell eyes tired but curious. "Yes, Mon Minou?"

Right then, he forgot how to speak. The words were stuck in his throat, and he didn't want to swallow them. "Um, I-.. Are you Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

The words were rushed, and for the moment she didn't answer, he thought he spoke too fast for her to understand. She opened her mouth, eyes wide, and a word rolled off her tongue, a word he never thought he would hear come from her mouth.

"Fuck."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien reveal their most important secret.

It's safe to say Ladybug was _not_ expecting Chat Noir to have known her identity. Tikki had said, earlier, that Adrien had figured it out, though she wouldn't say how. Could he have told Chat Noir? Or did her Minou find out himself? How could Adrien have even told him, if he did?

God, this was such a mess. But she couldn't lie. So she cursed, and she knows Tikki will scold her for it later, but she couldn't help it. At least the look on Chat's face was amusing. Jaw dropped, eyes wide, and he looked absolutely _scandalized._ It would be funny if he hadn't asked that question.

"W-What are you talking about! She- She was MultiMouse, remember?"

Chat Noir looked nervous, apprehensive, as he explained what he did to Plagg earlier that day.

She smiled a bit, her Minou was too smart for his own good, but quickly erased it. This was serious. A small sigh escaped her, and grabbed her yoyo. "Come on, let's go to somewhere more private."

Neither of them said a thing has he followed her all the way back to a balcony. A balcony, he realized, was Marinette's.

Ladybug had thought about what she was going to do. Bunnix had made it clear what would happen if their identities were leaked, but she didn't say _how._ All she knows is Adrien found out, and it caused, for lack of better phrase, a catastrophe. She never wanted to see Paris drowned the way it had been, or her Mon Minou looking so sad, so broken.

So, as long as they keep it a secret, it'll be fine. Bunnix would come back and tell her if something went wrong.

"Chat Noir, you _must_ understand you can't tell anyone about who we really are. It _will_ cause the destruction of Paris." She took a deep, steadying breath. She was _so_ going to regret this later, "That being said, Tikki, spots off."

The suit and mask disappeared with the pink light, revealing exactly who Chat Noir thought she was. A little red Kwami was next to her, the one who had given him Ladybug's earrings during Juleka's second akumatization. "Marinette," The little god gasped, "I thought you said you didn't want to reveal your secret identities?"

The girl flushed. "But he figured it out, Tikki. And I can't lie. That would make me as bad as Lila."

"No it wouldn't! You saw what happened when Bun-"

"If that happens again, she'll come back and tell me."

"You can't always rely on that, Marinette." Tikki huffed, crossing her tiny arms.

"I know, Tikki. I'm sorry."

The raven-haired girl turned to Chat Noir, blush worsening at his intense stare. She waved a hand in front of his face, "Mon Minou?"

The blond blinked, "I didn't expect to be right." He grinned, "Plagg, claws in."

In a similar fashion to Ladybug's detransformation, Chat's suit and mask left him, with only an Adrien Agreste standing in his place.

As expected, Marinette turned into a fumbling, blushing mess. "You- I- Adrien Noir is Chat Agreste- no, I mean, Adrien Chat is Noir Agrest- wait-"

The boy with sunshine hair grinned. "Chat Noir is Adrien Agreste."

And so, a blooming relationship was born.

* * *

Adrien spent a good few hours over Marinette's place. Their Kwamis we're definitely happy to see each other, even though Plagg would deny it for as long as he lived.

The two teenagers, however, we're working out how they would act around each other. Marinette had, after a particularly bad day of trying to confess to Adrien, spilled her heart out to Chat Noir, during one of the Lonely Hearts meeting they had(It used to be Broken Hearts, but Marinette insisted that was too sad). So Chat knew of her crush on Adrien, and the whole of Paris knew of Chat's crush on Ladybug, the only difference being Marinette was the only one who knew it was real.

Adrien explained he didn't want to lead Marinette on by being extra nice to her, and in turn she explained she didn't want someone to use their relationship against them, as heroes. Which left them with two options; be together only as civilians, or just be friends. Of course, they settled on being just friends.

Marinette made Chat a hot chocolate to go, and he was off, back to his mansion.

The next day was... weird. Adrien got ready a bit earlier, anxious to see his Lady again. Marinette, on the other hand, dreaded going to school. Lila would be there, no doubt, and she didn't feel like hearing her spew some lies of her blackmailing the model. Or threatening him. Or brainwashing him. Or- well, you get the point.

The Akumas died down slightly that night, with only the one after patrol, so it was safe to say both were pretty well-rested. Which would make her all the more aware of Lila's words and stories.

"It'll be fine, Marinette!" Tikki had reassured her that morning, "Adrien will be there with you."

She tried not to be sour at the thought. He couldn't really help her when they were on opposite sides of the room. And he had even told her to take the high road, like Ms Bustier always told them to. So, she distracted herself with the thought of her Minou being Adrien. All the things he said as Chat had a different meaning, almost, now that she knew who they were coming from.

All the things he said about his father... Marinette Dupain-Cheng now has officially _two_ people she hates(Really, we all know it's one).

She got to school, just barely before being late(as always), and hurried to her classroom. If she was quick, she could get inside before Ms Bustier did attendance. Luckily, she saw the teacher just outside the door, talking to... Adrien?

The girl paused, ducking back behind the wall. Eavesdropping was bad, yeah, but she was curious. And satisfaction always brings the cat back, right?

"Ms Bustier, I was wondering if I could sit next to Marinette? I... I don't feel comfortable with Lila next to me."

"But don't you help her with studying outside of school?"

"I try, but a lot of my after-school activities keep getting in the way. I was planning on telling her to try and find someone who has more freetime after class."

"Oh, alright. But I don't want you two talking throughout the lesson, alright?"

"Thank you, Ms Bustier!"

It was then the teenager decided to move from her hiding spot. She watched both teacher and student enter the classroom with happy eyes. _I guess Adrien can help me, after all._

The bell rang, and she scrambled to get into class. Most of the students and Ms Bustier gave her looks, but she ignored them. Adrien was just sitting down, next to where she usually sits, and she hurried to sit next to him.

The class kept looking back at them throughout the class, and with every stare she hunched further into her seat. "Ignore them," Adrien murmured at one point, "I won't let them bother you."

And he kept that promise. During one of the few minutes where the teachers rotated, Lila and Alya made there way up to them. Taking the high road, Marinette didn't speak to them. She might say something 'insulting' by accident.

"Girl, what did you do?" Alya asked, hands on her hips and an accusing look on her face.

She opened her mouth, but Adrien spoke before she could, "She didn't do anything, Alya."

"Then why would you suddenly move back here?"

His eyes narrowed a fraction, something Alya missed but the other two girls didn't. "I didn't like how Lila kept touching me. And before you say something, I _did_ tell her, multiple times."

"But who's going to help me, now?" Lila asked, interrupting her 'friend.'

"I could barely help you to begin with, it would be better to find someone who has more free time. Like Alya."

To her credit, Lila's annoyance only lasted a split second, before disappointment replaced it. No one could deny she was an okay actor. Not great, but good enough to fool a group of teenagers. "Oh, al-"

She was interrupted by Ms Mendeliev entering the class, who immediately barked at them to sit down when she entered. Marinette sighed quietly in relief, giving Adrien an assuring smile in response to his worried look.

_'Thank you'_ she mouthed, returning to the lesson.

... Maybe it would be okay, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if this was cannon or not, but I do want Chat Noir to keep visiting Marinette, like a lot of other creators. So, I used the excuse of them continuing to meet up after Glaciator. And that was how the Lonely Hearts Club was created!
> 
> I sort of wanted Adrien to be a the sort of protector that doesn't go out of their way. Like he didn't tell them to stop staring, but he did defend her when Alya and Lila confronted her. I really wanted him to stick to his belief of 'leave it alone and it will go away', but I also wanted him to protect her, as the tags indicate.
> 
> And that's the end of this two-shot! I understand if you want more, but I am working on a second part to the series. I also want to apologize if anyone seems a bit OOC. I got into writing fanfiction because it would help me with that aspect of writing, so if someone does something out of character, within reason, please tell me and I'll try to avoid it in the future.


End file.
